Torey Krug and Brad Marchand got into a tussle during battle drills in Tuesday’s practice. The two had to be separated after some netront battling escalated. Shortly after, the two led the team’s stretch together.

Marchand and Krug both said they were fine with each other after the practice, with Marchand saying it was a result of him telling Krug’s “brother’s fiance’s friend” that he was taller than Krug. So there’s that.

“It shows emotion, and right now that’s one thing we need, is to show a little more emotion,” Marchand said. “That’s what we need. Obviously you don’t want to be going at each other in practice, but sometimes things happen and hopefully that all carries over into the game.”

Charlie Jacobs is not happy with the Bruins. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Charlie Jacobs held a press conference Tuesday to announce that he has been named CEO of Delaware North’s Boston Holdings, which runs the Bruins, TD Garden and NESN. Suspicions of the press conference’s timing were confirmed when Jacobs used the opportunity to fire warning shots across the Bruins organization.

Jacobs said that the entire Bruins organization is under evaluation, something he repeatedly referred to as a “fluid process.” He noted that he had met with both team president Cam Neely and general manager Peter Chiarelli to discuss the team’s status within the last 24 hours.

Asked whether players, coaches or management should be worried about their jobs, Jacobs repeated, “It’s a fluid process.”

At 19-15-6, the Bruins currently sit ninth in the Eastern Conference. Jacobs said missing the playoffs would be an “incredible failure.”

“When you think about what has been put into this team, in terms of … all of the scouting, all of the drafting, all of the money spent on player personnel, for us to be a team that’s out of the playoffs is absolutely unacceptable,” Jacobs said. “Everybody in the executive office is fully aware of how I feel and they feel the same way, which brings us to this evaluation process, and it’s fluid. I can’t say at any moment that we have a final decision other than to say it would be an utter disappointment and a failure.’

Claude Julien batted down a question Monday about whether players should fear for their jobs, but having the Principal of the team come out and say it forced Julien to weigh in.

“To be honest with you, I’ve always felt that we’re under evaluation all the time,” Julien said. “You don’t take this job and go in there and think it’s OK. Every year you’re being evaluated on what’s going on with the team and everything else. I think that’s a fair assessment. We all should be evaluated. Whether because he’s saying it now, is it because of the situation? Maybe. I don’t know, that’s up to Charlie to answer that. I’m OK with that statement.

“We made the playoffs seven years in a row with a lot of this group and this coaching staff, so at the same time, you look at the situation and you say what is the real issue and how do we deal with it, and that’s going to be up to them. So I have no issues. My job is always under evaluation, and I evaluate myself. I evaluate my coaches as well, I evaluate the players as well. I do that also. So I don’t know, maybe for you guys it’s a big statement — for me, it’s not.”

Julien was given a contract extension earlier this season. He compared this year’s Bruins to last season’s Red Wings, a squad that dealt with injuries to key players and made the playoffs. That’s a tough comparison to make, as the Bruins, who have missed Zdeno Chara and David Krejci for stretches, are completely healthy heading into the second half of the season.

“I guess everybody evaluates differently,” Julien said. “I look at our situation right now a lot like the Detroit Red Wings last year. A lot of injuries, a lot of in-and-outs and everything else. I’m not using excuses. We’ve not had the stability that we’d like to have, and it’s made for a rough road. Last year they made the playoffs with two or three games left. I’m not saying we’re going to be there with two or three games left. My evaluation and my job is to turn this thing around as quick as possible. There was no panic there. They understood the situation. I think right here, I don’t know how they evaluate the situation, but I know for a fact our guys, our group, our coaching staff, we’re going to try our best. It’s not good enough right now, but we’re determined to turn this thing around. Once it’s turned around, everyone will have smiles on their faces.

“Nobody likes to lose. The urgency that you’re alluding to, I’d be disappointed if we didn’t have that same urgency before even he said that. That would be a knock on our group. There is some urgency even if not everybody believes it. My job in the last couple days has been to get the guys to relax a little bit and not get so tense. Hopefully these comments don’t make it any worse. This is what we’ve got to deal with. I’ve got enough experience in this league to take this group of players and make them feel comfortable and understand that they’re capable of turning this around. I believe in this group, I really do.”

WILMINGTON — Patrice Bergeron was the lone Bruin absent from Monday’s practice at Ristuccia Arena, which began half an hour later than scheduled.

Coming off perhaps their lowest point of the season in a 2-1 shootout loss to the Hurricanes that saw most of their forwards go without a shot on goal, the B’s were scheduled for a 10:30 a.m. skate in Wilmington, but the ice remained vacant until Dennis Seidenberg stepped on 28 minutes later, with teammates trickling out shortly after.

Bergeron missed last Monday’s game against the Red Wings with an undisclosed injury but has played in three games since. Claude Julien said after the practice that Monday was a maintenance day for Bergeron.

Looking for their first win in three games, the Bruins, behind two nonexistent periods, lost in a shootout to the second-worst team in the league as the Hurricanes took a 2-1 victory over the struggling B’s in Carolina. With the loss, the Bruins fell to 19-15-6 on the season.

Though the Bruins have actually gotten points in four straight (1-0-3), Sunday’s loss is the latest low point of the season for Boston. The Bruins are now 0-1-3 this season in games in which they have a healthy lineup.

The Bruins didn’t land a shot on goal until 16:55 of the first period and managed to get just two pucks on net in the first period altogether. For the second straight game, Claude Julien changed up his top-six wingers during the game, as he switched right wings Seth Griffith and Reilly Smith a day after switching first-and-second-line left wings Milan Lucic and Brad Marchand.

Patrick Dwyer scored for Carolina in the final minute of the first period, with Patrice Bergeron getting the Bruins on the board with a one-timer off a feed from Marchand at 14:35 of the second period. Bergeron nearly netted the game-winner in overtime, but Nathan Gerbe got a stick on the puck to break up Bergeron’s backhand bid.

The B’s managed just two shots on goal in the third period, with seven B’s forwards going the whole 65-minute contest without a shot on goal (David Krejci, Griffith, Marchand, Loui Eriksson, Daniel Paille, Gregory Campbell, Craig Cunningham).

Tuukka Rask stopped 35 of the 36 shots he faced during game action and surrendered the lone goal of the shootout to Eric Staal. The Bruins are now 1-1-3 in the last five games in which Rask has allowed two goals or less.

By DJ Bean | Comments Off on 5 things we learned as Bruins fall in overtime to Senators

The Bruins began this week with what looked like a tide-turning win over the Red Wings. They followed it with a shootout loss and an overtime loss. The week was a perfect microcosm of the 2014-15 Bruins.

Boston relinquished a 2-1 lead in the third period Saturday as Ottawa forced overtime and eventually took two points on Bobby Ryan’s game-winner. The B’s are now 19-15-5.

Here are five things we learned Saturday:

JULIEN FLIPS LEFT WINGS

Claude Julien has had to mix up his lines more often than usual this season. That generally happens when you’re coaching a team that’s been bad offensively.

It worked Saturday, as he flipped Milan Lucic and Brad Marchand in an effort to wake up his top two lines in the third period of a tied game. Lucic and Krejci were among six Bruins forwards who did not have a shot on goal through the first two periods, so Julien assigned Lucic to Patrice Bergeron‘s line and Marchand to Krejci’s.

It paid off when Krejci fed Marchand in front and then went to the net to provide traffic as Marchand ripped a shot from the left circle past Craig Anderson. The change woke up Lucic as well, as he hustled back to break up a Senators rush early in the period.

MCQUAID RETURNS, BRUINS FINALLY HEALTHY

Adam McQuaid returned to the lineup from his thumb injury, giving the Bruins an injury-free roster for just the third time this season.

With McQuaid back, the Bruins scratched Matt Bartkowski and played McQuaid on the right side of their second pairing with Dennis Seidenberg. That’s probably the Bruins’ best bet for their second pairing given the guys that they have on the roster right now.

McQuaid took two penalties, drew one and was on the ice for a goal against in the second period.

After Wednesday’s overtime loss, Tuukka Rask said that the Bruins have found themselves ‘duplicating jobs’ this season, which has created opportunities for opponents in Boston’s zone.

That happened again in the second period Saturday when Adam McQuaid, Dennis Seidenberg and Daniel Paille chased a puck into the corner, leaving Kyle Turris alone to walk in on Rask and score after McQuiad was unable to secure the puck behind the net. Bobby Ryan was also left open on the other side of the net, so the B’s were asking for trouble either way.

B’S SURVIVE 5-ON-3s, CASH IN ON PP

The Bruins had to kill off a 1:42 five-on-three when Brad Marchand was sent off for tripping Erik Karlsson behind the Ottawa net 18 seconds after Adam McQuaid was called for a roughing minor in the second period.

Later in the period, Torey Krug tied the game on the power play with a slapper that beat Anderon for Krug’s eighth goal of the season. The B’s were unable to cash in on a power play late in regulation.

RASK BRUINS’ BEST PENALTY KILLER

Rask followed up his strong showing on the first five-on-three by doing it again the next period.

With Bergeron off for hooking and McQuaid in the box for a delay of game penalty, Rask came across his net to rob Mika Zibanejad on a one-timer with less than six minutes to play in a one-goal game.

Rask would run into some bad luck soon thereafter, however, as the Senators managed to tie the game on a point shot that was going wide before bouncing off a body and in.

The Bruins returned Matt Lindblad and Zach Trotman to Providence Thursday.

Lindblad had been recalled prior to Monday’s game on an emergency basis after the B’s lost Matt Fraser on waivers to the Oilers. He skated on a line with Craig Cunningham and Seth Griffith in Boston’s win over Detroit, but served as a healthy scratch Wednesday when both Milan Lucic and Patrice Bergeron returned to the lineup.

In two NHL games this season, Lindblad has no points, three shots on goal and an average time on ice of 7:46.

Trotman has skated in 17 games for the Bruins, averaging 17:16 of ice time, but was a healthy scratch in Boston’s last six games. His assignment to Providence leaves the Bruins with seven defensemen and suggests Adam McQuaid (thumb) could be nearing a return.